Class of 2035 Commission's Recommendations
Children’s lives are changing – they are less active and spend less time outdoors than previous generations.
If current trends in children’s movement, play and sport continue, low participation levels will increasingly affect their health and wellbeing, development and life chances.
Youth Sport Trust’s latest Class of 2035 report warned if current trends continue, by 2035:
- Almost half (48%) of children will spend three or more hours on screens for entertainment each day
- More than a third (34%) will fail to be active for even 30 minutes a day
- Type II diabetes diagnoses in children will double, reaching 500 new cases each year.
In response to this concerning picture, Youth Sport Trust initiated the Class of 2035 Commission, chaired by Dr Paula Franklin and bringing together leaders from across healthcare.
Following a series of discussions and informed by data and experiences, the Commission has published a final report including recommendations designed to prioritise movement, play and sport to deliver the best outcomes for children and young people.
To tackle the childhood crisis and prevent the personal, societal and economic consequences - already evident today and set to grow in the future - the Class of 2035 Commission recommends action to:
- Raise awareness of the UK Chief Medical Officers' physical activity guidance for children among healthcare professionals
- Strengthen and expand the social prescribing pathway for children and young people
- Deliver a minimum amount of physical activity within every school and early years setting
- Increase skills and competence for staff in the PE and School Sport Network
- Implement a national wellbeing measurement programme for children and young people
- Create a national, cross-government Children and Young People’s Physical Activity Strategy.
Quotes
Our Well, Our Voice campaign:
“The Our Wellbeing Our Voice campaign is fully supportive of The Class of 2035 Commission and its recommendations. Physical exercise is a key component of young people’s wellbeing, and the more we can do to integrate that into their lives both inside and outside school the better. We are delighted to see the recommendation for a national wellbeing measurement programme as a means of tracking the impact of physical exercise for young people.”
Helen Battelley MA, Chair, National Early Years Active Start Partnership:
“Early childhood is a vital window for establishing the foundations of physical development, confidence, and a lifelong relationship with movement. If we are truly committed to improving children’s health outcomes, we must invest in the knowledge and understanding of both early years educators and families. Movement in the early years is not an ‘add-on’; it is fundamental to how young children experience the world, build relationships, and make sense of their learning. Ensuring children enter school with secure physical foundations is therefore not only about health and wellbeing, but about enabling them to engage meaningfully, confidently, and successfully in their learning journey.”
Sir Mo Farah CBE, Youth Sport Trust National School Sport Champion:
"Every young person deserves to grow up happy, healthy, and with the opportunity to achieve their full potential. Too few children in the UK are exercising regularly and it’s having a detrimental impact on their health and wellbeing. We need a new Children and Young People’s Physical Activity Strategy which guarantees every child daily opportunities to be physically active and unlocks the power of play and sport to improve young lives.”
Dr Oliver Mytton, Director of the NIHR Policy Research Unit for Healthy Weight at University College London’s Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health:
“Children do not have the same opportunities to play and be active as previous generations. When I was a child, we would play out in the street every night and explore the woods where we lived. Too few children have these same opportunities today. This affects children’s health, their social and emotional development, their mental wellbeing and their confidence. It is not fair. This report is a call for action to give all children the freedom to be experience the joy of being active.”
